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Transcript from Head Coach Steve Kragthorpe's Press Conference
10/27/2003 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 27, 2003
Tulsa, Oklahoma -
Your thoughts about the win over SMU:
Obviously, I think it was a great win for us. It was a game we felt like it was a must win to keep us in this race. I was really pleased with a the way our guys played in a couple of adverse situations in the game. A little bit of a tough weather situation in that we really only got one possession in the first, second or third quarter with the wind because they did a nice job on their first drive of eating seven and half minutes off of the clock, and we only had one drive in the first quarter. Then the entire second and third quarters we were against the wind -- it was tough sledding in terms of trying to throw the football and then when we did get the wind in the fourth quarter we were able to take some shots down the field with the wind behind us. Again I thought our offensive coordinator, Charlie Stubbs, did a nice job of calling the game plan accordingly and we were pleased with the fact that we won the football game. It was a big win for us. A lot of guys contributed. James (Kilian) played good football for us -- very sound, very solid, five touchdown passes. I thought he managed the game well. 10-of-17 in the game -- We didn't through a whole lot because of the weather conditions, but he made the most of those opportunities. Garrett Mills, I thought made some nice plays for us; Romby Bryant made some nice plays for us; Uril (Parrish) had a couple of nice runs for us; Eric Richardson had a couple of nice runs for us. Again, I think you see a lot of balance on offense, and you also see a lot of different combinations of players on different plays.
I thought our defense, after the first drive, really settled down and played good football. We had the one big turnover on the fumble, but to me, as I look at it, I thought we had four turnovers in the game because we stopped them on fourth down on three occasions.
On UTEP quarterback Jordan Palmer:
"He's a good player. I just watched the Hawaii game. I thought he played well in that game. He's throwing the ball well. He's a big tall guy that has a strong arm. He's pretty elusive for a guy of his size. He can run around fairly well. I'm impressed with him as a quarterback. I think he's a really fine player.
Have you noticed any factors in them starting 0-4, and now playing good football?
I think it's a little like us. They played some pretty good football teams early in the year -- Arizona and San Diego State. They did lose to Cal Poly, but that's a situation like our Texas State game. Cal Poly is pretty dangerous. They have a lot of I-A transfers that can contribute right away.
Their defense is improving on a weekly basis. I think Troy does a good job with their defense. They play an eight-man front, and they're pretty creative with their coverages. They played a couple different coverage combinations against Hawaii than we'd seen before on tape. They're doing a nice job on the defensive side of the football, and they're making some big plays on offense. They're running the football pretty well. They broke a 75-yard screen pass against SMU. Probably like any team in our league right now. When they haven't had the success they've wanted it's probably because of turnovers. They've had a few games where they've turned the ball over, much like us against Nevada.
UTEP Coach Nord has said he will no longer play I-AA teams in the futures because they're so many bounce-back players, and the risk is not worth it. Would you adopt that stance at Tulsa?
We play Southwest Missouri next year, after that I'm not certain what our schedule holds. I agree with Gary in that point. The 1-AA teams are not 1-AA players. They are Divison I players -- that maybe weren't recruited out of high school or they're guys that have bounced back from Division I programs. Like I said before, when I was at Northern Arizona, I coached one of the best quarterbacks I ever coached. He was a guy that didn't get recruited and then Travis Brown, a player we had a Buffalo was an I-AA player and Larry Centers was a I-AA player. We had a bunch of Division II players. There are quality players at every level
UTEP Coach Gary Nord has had to convince fans to be patient. He is a guy that has said all along it is a five-year plan, and red-shirt the freshman and bite the bullet and hope it pays off in the end. That's the tough thing to get people to be patient when you do that?
Everybody has a different mode of operation and different plan. Ultimately, I think you would like to put yourself in a position to red-shirt some players and have them around for five years. The only disadvantage of that on occasion is if you got a guy becomes a marquee player after his junior year then the NFL is going to steal him. So, I think that is a little bit of an either or situation there. Our situation here at The University of Tulsa we've had to play some freshmen players just because of some of our depth limitations and some starters. Nick Bunting is starting for us and there are number of other players that are starting for us in our dime package. We had some players that were starting earlier for us that have been nicked up a little bit and haven't been able to get back in there. I guess ultimately is that, yes, you would like to have a player for five years instead of four, but by the same token nowadays I don't think that there are as many players that want to red-shirt as there were maybe 10 or 15 years ago. I think guys coming out of high school are looking to play right away in their careers. That's one of the things we factor into it also. A red-shirt situation is not a one-way decision. It's a decision that we'll sit down with that player, and talk about how much he has the opportunity to play or what we envision him being able to play, and is that contribution significant enough to take a year of eligibility and use it as a freshman, rather than to use it as a fifth-year player.
You're pleased where you're at, but you've also pointed out that you're not satisfied until the end of the year:
We are happy with where we're at, but we're certainly not satisfied. Because we think that we can continue to improve as a football team. We think in order to win these next four games we are going to have to improve as a football team. So this is a process. It is a week-by-week process. We try to get better every week. Obviously, you are measured, ultimately, by whether or not you win or lose the football game. But, what we measure ourselves right now before we enter that contest is how much we've done in terms preparing to win the football game. So each week we want to prepare well. We want to continue to improve, we want to continue to correct mistakes that we may be making and make sure that we don't repeat those mistakes in future games. We want to continue to improve as football team, that is really our first and foremost goal. From week-to-week, you play the game and see where you end up at the end of it.
You've been quick to share credit with your assistant coaches, and you said on the WAC conference call that it is not one guy that has made this change?
This is not a one-man operation and I made that clear when I first got here with our staff, and with our players and our student managers and our student trainers. The way that I put it, is that if one of our student trainers does not properly tape an ankle and one of our players is hurt then I can't coach him. So that means that that student trainer is just as important as our head football coach in our program, and I really believe that. Our assistant coaches do a great job. They devise good game plans -- game plans that put our players in a position to be successful. I think that is a real key in building a program particularly when you walk into a situation where you don't have two or three recruiting classes under your belt. That will come in the future. But for us right now, we need to take the players that we have on campus and mold our system to them and do things that they can be successful at. I think our assistant coaches do a great job. Because of the guys that I was able to hire, I don't have to run the offense. I don't have to run the defense. I don't have to run the special teams. Like I said before there are different strokes for different folks. I have got friends that run the offense, but for me I have always wondered how you coach a quarterback and make offensive adjustments and still with your back to the playing field see what the defense is doing what adjustments you have to make on special teams and those things. For me, I think the wisest use of all of our resources right now here at Tulsa is for me to be a checks and balances guy so I can be involved in the offense. I sit in on the offensive meetings. I sit in on some defensive meetings. I'm at every special teams meeting, so that allows me to have a good pulse on our entire football team to make the decisions that I need to make on gameday. And it also creates an environment where our players have an understanding that there is no one phase of the football team that is more important than anybody else. We're all in this thing together-offense, defense, and special teams.
How important is it to be able to win on the road?
It is a challenge to go and win on the road, because you have to vary your routine a little bit. Yet by the same token, it is important for us to win this game. This game happens to be on the road. Whether we are playing UTEP at Tulsa or UTEP at El Paso, it's important for us to win this football game. There is a challenge of always playing on the road and you don't have your fans. A lot times, you don't have your family there watching you play, which is important to all of us, but the bottom line is to get this program to where we want it to be, we have to win on the road.
